Method of cutting buttons.



H. HASTINGS.

METHOD OF CUTTING BUTTONS.

APPLICATION FILED APR.8. 19x2.

1,21 9,455. Patented Mar. 20, 1917.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT HASTINGS, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN BUTTON COMPANY, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF YORK.

I METHOD OF CUTTING BUTTONS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 20, 191 '7.

Application filed April 8, 1912. Serial N 0. 689,257.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT HAsrINGs, of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Cutting Buttons; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and

. cavity of very irregular shape.

exact description of the same, reference bcing had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of thisspecification, and to the reference numerals marked thereon.

My present invention relates to the manufacture of buttons, and it has for its object to provide a new and improved method of cutting and severing buttons from blocks or blanks of the material from which they are made, to the end that buttons of large diameter may be formed near the surface of the blank, and the waste material from the latter minimized. To these and other ends the invention consists in certain further improvements in the method of forming buttons all as will be hereinafter more fully described, the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 indicates a transverse sectional view of a vegetable ivory nut, on two of the faces of which buttons constructed in accordance with my present invention are shown in different stages of manufacture.

Figs. 2 and 3 are longitudnal sectional views of a blank taken on the lines 2*2* and 3"3 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing the present manner of cutting slabs for blanks and Fig. 5 isa side'view of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the severed blank andshowing the operation of the tool by which the blank is severed.

Similar reference numerals in'the several figures indicate the same parts.

My invention relates particularly to the manufactureof buttons from the vegetable ivory nut. These nuts are generally about the size of a hens egg, but instead of being circular in cr'osssection they are more or less triangular. In texture they are hard and close grained, and at the center is a pith, which, as the nuts dry upon exposure to the atmosphere, contracts forming a central tures of the nut and the general size thereof vare shown in the several figure In the These feamanufacture of buttons at the present time it iscustomary, so far as I am at present informed, to cut slabs from the ends and sides of these nuts, and to turn or cutthe buttons therefrom. These slabs are irregular in outline and vary in thickness, therefore in order to obtain the most from a nut requires the exercise of great skill upon the part of the sawyer in the first place, and again of the workman, who subsequently turns up the button from the blank.

In the manufacture of vegetable ivory buttons, it is, of course, desirable to obtain the largest possible number of buttons, also to obtain as h1gh an average possible of buttons of the larger sizes which can be cut from each nut. In order that these buttons may possess the greatest strength and finest texture, it is also essential they be cut from that is the body portions thereof, which are flattened at the ends by the removal of the end slabs or domes, as this operation leaves the body sections with parallel end faces by means of which they can be securely gripped I The removal of the. ends of the nut 18 not, however,,essential to in a suitable holder.

the carrying out of the inventiombut it is preferred to do so because of the fact that the end slabs thus obtained can, by other processes of button manufacture, be converted into button blanks. Another advantage is obtained in the removal of the slab, since the thickness of the latter, determined by the length. of the central recess or pith cavity'a, determines the length of the result-v ing bodysection of each nut, and the latter may then be carefully sorted as to size for the subsequent manufacture of buttons of various diameters, the size or diameter of the buttons depending largely upon the size of the nuts.

The truncated body sections of the nut may be firmly supported in any suitable work-holder, and itsseveral faces subjected successively to the cutting action ofatool,

the working edge of which is so shaped as to provide a button face and rim, such as indicated by b, of any desired shape or contour, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The neXt step in the operation consists in severing the button from the blank by means of a suitable tool, the relative movement between which and the work-piece is such that a spheri -al channel 0 may be cut at the proper depth to form the spherical rear surface of the button and also sever the button blank from the nut body, whereby said blank is left with the proper thickness and contour, as shown in Figs. 1 and The severance of the blank is preferably accomplished by rotating said blank in a. suitable holder and passing a curved or are shaped tool transversely ot the blank into engagement therewith at a predetermined point and moving the tool in a curved path to the center of the blank. The transverse llltfi'tllltllb of the severing tool is indicated in Fig. 5 by the dotted lines shown therein.

Tn the third face of the blanks shown in Fig. l, I have indicated in dotted lines the position which the third button blank may occupy since the area of this face is in no way restricted or cut down by the removal of the two buttons previously cut.

The particular type of apparatus employed to perform these operations, I do not deem essential so far as the present invention is concerned. The operations forming the face of the blank and excising the byitton blank from the body of the nut may be quite separate and distinct, or they may be performed successively. In other words, each blank may have each of its faces submitted to the operation of the face cutting tool so that several buttons, such as indicated by b, will be partially completed when the nut body will then be submitted to the back forming and cutting out tool and the three or more buttons removed from the blank. Another way in which the invention may be carried out would be an arrangement of the respective tools at appropriate angles to each other, wherebythe face of one button may be out while the back of another button, previously faced on the same block, is being formed and said button is being severed. The buttons cut from the same nut body may all be of the same size and form, or they may be of different diameters and different forms.

In manufacturing buttons in the manner heretofore described they are positioned as near as possible wholly within those areas of the nut body which possess the closest, hardest and clearest grain. Another advantage is also obtained in that buttons of larger diameter can be produced, and more buttons of a large diameter obtained from a given nut body. This will be obvious from an inspection of Fig. 4, which illustrates a triangular shaped ivory button nut from which the three slabs D, E and F are shown as removed by the sawyer preparatory to the manufacture of buttons in the well known manner. The slab D first removed by the saw kerf (l is the largest, and will produce one button of large diameter. The second slab to be removed, the one indicated by E, is necessarily of less area and only one button of smaller diameter can be formed therefrom. The saw kerfs d and 0 determine the area of the third slab F, which, being the smallest of the three, must necessarily be used in the manufacture of buttons smaller in formed from either of the other slabs. The buttons when cut from these several slab portions of the nut leave a considerable portion of waste material in the remaining rings or edge portions of the slabs, which is practically useless except in the very largest pieces. By my method of forming thebuttons a goodly portion of the material, which would otherwise form these rings I have mentioned, remains as an integral part of the remaining nut body or core, and thereby becomes serviceable for working up into other articles, such as beads, eyelets and similar articles.

It is also obvious that the nut body as a, whole may be held more firmly during the cutting operation than is possible to do with the smaller slabs, and that during the first operations the button blank being integral with the nut body, is supported most securely and accurately during the important turning operation of the face cutting tool.

I claim as my invention:

1. The method of forming buttons consisting in cutting in the face of a Workpiece one face and the rim of a button with one tool and subsequently simultaneously severing the button from the work-piece by another tooland forming its other face by the severing operation.

2. The method of forming buttons consisting in turning in the face of a workpiece one face of a button with one tool, and severing said button from the workpiece by transversely cutting the work-piece by another tool and by said severance also forming the other face of the button.

The method of forming buttons consisting in cutting in the different side walls of a vegetable ivory nut, one face of each of several buttons and subsequently separating them from the body of the nut by transversely cutting the several walls of the nut in rear of the previously formed button faces.

.4. The method of forming buttons consisting in cutting successively in each of the several side walls of a vegetable ivory nut one face and the rim of a button and successively cutting the different walls of the diameter than those sisting in turning one side of a button in another tool having a circular travel approxnnatmg the contour desired to be glven 10 sald face of the button.

HERBERT HASTINGS.

I Witnesses:

G. WILLARD RICH, HENRY WV. HALL.

the face of a workpiece by one tool and then severing the button therefrom and thereby forming its other side in one operation by Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents" each, by addressing the Commissioner or Patentl,

Washington, D. 0. 

